President Obama shares a light moment with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo just hours before the historic beer summit with Harvard professor Henry Gates and Cambridge police officer James Crowley.
(ALEX BRANDON/AP)Photos (1 of 1)
Obama: Beer summit is not a beer summit so don’t call it that!
By Jimmy Orr | 07.30.09
Don’t call tonight’s “beer summit” a “beer summit.”
That’s what President Obama is saying an hour before the beer summit meeting with professor Henry Gates and Sgt. James Crowley.
Lowering expectations? Probably. Will his statements diminish the wild media interest in the beer summit? Nope. CNN and MSNBC both have a ticker on their networks with a countdown until the beer summit begins.
What’s wrong with calling it a beer summit?
“It’s a clever term but this is not a summit, guys,” he said to reporters following a meeting with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines. “This is three folks having a drink at the end of the day, and hopefully giving people the opportunity to listen to each other. And that’s really all it is.”
“This is not a university seminar,” he said. “It is not a summit. It’s an attempt to have some personal interaction when an issue has become so hyped and so symbolic that you lose sight of just the fact that these are people involved, including myself, all of whom are imperfect, and will hopefully instead of ginning up anger and hyperbole, everybody can just spend a little bit of time with some self reflection and recognizing that other people have different points of view.”
Obama said he was “fascinated with the fascination” over tonight’s beer summit. Further, he said that he would be surprised if the press made the beer summit the top story instead of the meeting he had with the president of the Phillipines.
“But the press has surprised me before,” Obama said.
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3. Simone | 07.30.09
I’m proud that the President was honest in his emotions, and forthcoming with his mistake with the media. If the matter cannot be settled over beer, there is a lot of overly emotional individuals out there. Aren’t there other bigger matters at hand for the country with which to consume its time?
4. Andrea | 07.30.09
Irene, you obviously aren’t referring to the incident between Sgt. Crowley and Henry Gates. Domestic Violence is an action between two people residing in the same home (husbands and wives, parents and kids, etc.) Gates was called in for loitering and suspected breaking and entering. When he showed his ID and proved that he lived there, that should have been the end of the problems. If everyone who called a police officer a dirty name or got angry with a cop was charged with a crime, our courts would be overflowing. With that being said, we all make mistakes and deserve the opportunity to make things right. That includes citizens, police officers, and presidents.
5. Blanding | 07.30.09
No way Irene, George W. Bush gets that honor. He screwed up the country and now you so-called conservatives have whined even before Obama took office. You can’t fix years of destruction in the short time he has been there but the truth is you want him to fail. Shame on you Irene.
6. John | 07.31.09
Get over yourself, Irene. Jeez. I applaud that he’s human and trying to have a human interaction and try to sort through the messiness of the situation like a normal person.Is your life perfect? If so, it must be nice.
Leave him alone and go take a biscuit.
7. Colleen Pierce | 07.31.09
It’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it Irene? In my view, George W. Bush was already the worst President of my lifetime. It’s hard to imagine there could ever be a worse one. And he made a bonfire out of the U.S. Constitution. Obama’s White House has barely made a dent in the mere 6 months he’s been in office. He hasn’t changed that much at all yet. But people seem to be getting juiced up on an awful lot of hype about what they think his plans are. If your life isn’t significantly better by the end of Obama’s first term, I’ll owe you a personal apology. Otherwise, I suggest you try getting your news from some other source besides Fox News, or other right wing ***** “news” organizations, and get a little perspective on things.
8. Snarfle | 07.31.09
Hey Irene. Congrats on judging the whole administration on one minuscule event. I’m sure future generations will cherish your viewpoint on this single, non-catastrophic event.
9. Jason Douglas | 07.31.09
Worst Oval office in history? lol, where have you been for the last 10 years. Go back to sleep Irene.
11. Pat Clatanoff | 07.31.09
I am very disappointed. I think our police officers should be supported whenever, not always, they are right. They have a difficult job and we need them. The comments directed at Sgt. Crowley were racist; Gates was the only one shouting. I thought we were moving toward a post-racial society, but the blacks are still clutching their victimization to them. Let’s make this a new world.
13. Monica | 07.31.09
Irene, you’re right. The rest of you, wake up! You’ve been schmoozed by a lot a fancy talk and absolutely NO walk. Obama is destroying this country, and soon, you won’t be laughing any more. When it happens, we’ll kindly hold off the “I told you so-s” because frankly, we already have.
14. Sandy F. | 08.01.09
Well, if this a sample of the “liberal media” I’d sure hate to face the “right wing media” were I a Democratic President. I think I have it finally figured out… the media is always whatever the President is not.
That way they can disagree, nit pick, find fault, whine, poke fun, and twist everything with a clear conscience and right after the election they can start in on the next poor sap who upon being elected president, thinks he has a knat’s chance in Hoboken of making the slightest bit of difference in what the lowest common denominator citizen in this country has in place of a considered opinion.
The fifth estate has done, continues to do, and perhaps will always do this country a grave injustice. You were supposed to be the watchdogs of this nation and the Constitution and here you are spending days on drivel about an informal meeting to get two people talking on a subject close to the heart of our current President. Yes, it did get more headlines than the meeting with the Philippine President over serious issues. hmmm maybe the media consists of the lowest common denominator citizens. Wouldn’t that be the dense leading the stupid?
15. Jet W | 08.01.09
Hi Simon: Honest in someone’s emotions doesn’t mean that emotions are right.
If wrong emotions also should be proud just because someone honest ( sometimes you can say is not know how to control it ) to its emotions. Believe me, you’ll eat a lots of from people you proud of.
PS: I just honest my emotion and said these, please be proud of me.
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Jimmy Orr has worked in politics for the majority of his professional career working for two U.S. Senators, two Governors and one President. Most recently, Orr served as White House Spokesman and Internet Director for President George W. Bush and Special Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger for Internet Communications.
David Cook is Washington bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor and host of the Monitor's newsmaker breakfasts. He was the Monitor's editor from 1994 to 2001. Cook is a graduate of Principia College, served in the U.S. Army, was a Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, and is a member of the Gridiron Club, Washington's oldest journalistic organization.
1. Irene | 07.30.09
This is the worst Oval office in History. We have terrible stewards of the US. Constitution.
Obama undermining Police Domestic violence protocols is shameful. If police accept a broken door lock , a poor impulse control anger, and walk away, D.V. victims are unsafe.
Gates and Obama should consider that.
Can we have the USA back, with taxation with representation for future generations that the Country was founded on?